Jimmy Kimmel talks with heroic cashier who fought off armed robbers

Zara Adil is brave, and lucky to be alive

(Image credit: Jimmy Kimmel Live)

published 4 March 2015

If you don't know Zara Adil's story about an attempted robbery at her family's tobacco shop, Jimmy Kimmel showed the narrated security camera footage on Tuesday night's Jimmy Kimmel Live. He then interviewed the college student from her home in Lexington, Kentucky — and Adil's story doesn't get any less crazy. She'd never been robbed before, never fired a gun, and yet she fought off two armed robbers, at least one of whom has since been arrested.

Adil doesn't plan on staying in the family business, she told Kimmel: She is studying to become a trauma surgeon. "Oh, so then you can operate on people you shot," Kimmel quipped. Jokes aside, what Adil did was probably unwise, but it was undeniably gutsy. Watch her in action below. —Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.